Khos call: Wild sweep at Warren

When Christina Khosravi stepped to the plate in the ninth inning - the second frame of bonus softball - she had redemption on her mind.

The senior co-captain got what she wanted, lacing a single into the right-centerfield gap to plate the fifth and winning run over La Salle.

But she thought she had already delivered the walk-off victory and doubleheader sweep two innings earlier.

Explorers' pitcher Laura Beth McCreesh walked in the tying run in the seventh, bringing up Khosravi with the bases loaded and two outs. The 2-2 pitch was low and inside, and Khosravi, believing that it hit her in the foot, tossed her bat and trotted towards first base.

Yet, even as the carousel of baserunners began to advance, the umpires made no signal. Catcher Michelle Sullivan alertly fired the ball to third base, where Khosravi's fellow captain, Annie Kinsey, was promptly tagged. The third base umpire called Kinsey out, the Explorers headed into their dugout and the Quakers remained on the basepaths, bewildered, as coach Leslie King pled her case.

The umpires conferred but stuck with their original verdict: The ball did not hit Khosravi, they said, which meant that Kinsey was out - officially, a caught stealing.

"I probably should've acted a little better to show that it hit me," Khosravi said. "When I went out to the field, I asked the field umpire if he really thought it didn't hit me. He said, 'To be honest with you, I didn't even see the play. I wasn't watching.'"

Indeed, nobody was too happy with the officiating. In the top of the ninth, Quakers pitcher Emily Denstedt was called for a 10-second violation when the plate umpire deemed she took too long between pitches.

King came out of the dugout, and, in front of a hushed Warren Field crowd, yelled to the ump, "You have been awful. You have been awful. Everyone knows that you've been awful."

After the game, La Salle coach Joe DiPietro confirmed King's assessment.

"That umpire behind home plate, me and Leslie talked about it afterward - he wasn't a good one," DiPietro said. "But he definitely wasn't going to give her" the hit by pitch call on Khosravi. (DiPietro insists that the ball hit the catcher's mitt, not the batter.)

In the end, though, King and the Quakers got the last laugh - and Khosravi, who had already homered and doubled in the game, got another chance.

"I was really surprised she even laid it up there, I thought she'd give me nothing to hit," the shortstop said of her final at-bat, when first base was open. "But she did, and I hit it. . Our motto this season has been 'Who is going to step up?' and I wanted to be that person."

Denstedt picked up the win from her 5.2 shutout innings in relief of Taylor Tieman. Tieman struggled yet again, allowing four runs (three earned) in 3.1 innings.

In the opener, which the Quakers won 6-2, the story was once again freshman ace Jessie Lupardus, who struck out 10 over seven innings. She allowed two runs (one earned), picking up the win but raising her season earned run average to 0.71.

She was aided by an unlikely hero. Susan Miller entered the batter's box in the first inning with a .194 average, and left it with her first career home run - a grand slam to straight-away center field.

The former pitcher, who posted a 9.24 ERA last year, has been converted into a position player and started at designated hitter.

"It was a little more difficult than expected," Miller said of the transition. "I just think hitting is hard to do in general."

For at least one inning, though, she made it look easy.

-Senior staff writer Sebastien Angel and staff writer Matt Flegenheimer contributed reporting to this article.

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